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    • Colorado coach Deion Sanders criticizes late kickoff time and plans a nap
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    Colorado coach Deion Sanders criticizes late kickoff time and plans a nap

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    Colorado football coach Deion Sanders was happy to leave the Pac-12 Conference this year because he thought it would mean earlier start times against teams in his team’s new conference, the Big 12.

    But that has not proven to be the case. On Thursday, Sanders pushed past the 10:15 PM ET start time for his team’s next game Saturday at home against Kansas State.

    “Who does that?” Sanders said this Thursday on the Colorado Football Coaches Show. “I mean, who has the power to sit up there and say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to let them play at 8:15 (MT)?’

    The show’s host, Mark Johnson, told him that the television networks had decided on ESPN in this case.

    “But how stupid is that?” Sanders said. “How stupid is that?”

    “This is what happens when you have a show that everyone wants to see,” Johnson said.

    “But it’s not smart for a television executive to say, ‘We’re going to put the game on right now,'” Sanders said. “Because you’re thinking about eyeballs. You’re thinking about selling merchandise in the commercials. You think about all that. Why would you do that when half of America is sleeping?”

    ESPN looks at it differently

    ESPN would disagree with Sanders’ analysis. Last year, ESPN broadcast a game between Colorado and Colorado State that ended after 2 a.m. ET. It averaged 9.3 million viewers and was the most-watched late game ever on the network.

    ESPN also still wants to fill its late time slots with attractive inventory, even as the Western teams in the old Pac-12 left for competitions in earlier time zones.

    In addition, Colorado still draws large television audiences even though the Buffaloes (4-1) are not in the Top 25.

    Four of Colorado’s five games this season have started at 7:30 PM ET or later. Yet the Buffs were still in 10th placee averaged 4.3 million viewers nationally in the fifth week of the season, according to data shared by the university.

    It is a pet peeve for Sanders, who admitted on Thursday that he normally goes to bed at 8:15 p.m. locally. He said he plans to take a nap before the game.

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    Follow Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected].

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